The world's oldest person
Born: November 29, 1899;
Died: April 15, 2017
EMMA Morano, who has died aged 117, was the world's oldest person and believed to have been the last surviving person born in the 1800s. In recent years, she had not left her home in northern Italy, but she still lived independently and attributed her longevity to the same simple diet every day including a raw egg. She also enjoyed a tot of home-made brandy.
She was born in Civiasco in north-east Italy in 1899, when Italy had been a unified nation for less than 30 years and Queen Victoria was still on the throne in Britain. One of three boys and five girls, her father was a labourer and when Emma was still a girl, the family moved north in search of work.
Emma herself started work when she was just 13 years old, in a jute factory, but it was not good for her health and doctors believed that she would not live long. It was when she was 20 that a doctor recommended raw eggs every day - advice which she followed for the rest of her life.
The love of her life was a young man, Augusto Barilati, who never returned from the First World War. Instead, she married the son of a neighbour, Giovanni Martinuzzi, but he was violent towards her and, with the help of her brothers, she threw him out. They couple never divorced though and remained married until he died in 1978.
Ms Morano's doctor Carlo Bava said she had been very decisive once she decided the marriage was over. She "abandoned the husband in the fascist era, when women were supposed to be very submissive", he said. "She was always very decisive." Dr Bava also said she had lost a son to cot death when he was six months old
Ms Morano worked until she was 75, her last job being cook in a nunnery. She also defied health advice. Some doctors had warned her against eating three eggs daily, which she did for years, but she ignored their advice.
Away from work, she was considered a good dancer with a beautiful singing voice in her youth. She did not travel, however, and had never been abroad or even been to Rome.
In recent years, Ms Morano had become the subject of scientific curiosity and attempts to understand why she had lived so long. Researchers from Harvard Medical School visited her in 2011.
She had been living in a tidy, one-room apartment, where she was visited by a carer and two elderly nieces.
"She didn't suffer. I'm happy she didn't suffer but passed away tranquilly," Dr Bava said.
He said she had been her usual chatterbox self until a few weeks ago. Since then it was clear, she was slowly fading away, and spending nearly all day in bed, Dr Bava said.
Dr Bava said he had last seen his patient on Friday when she thanked him and held his hand, as she did every time he called on her.
While she had been spending more time sleeping and less time speaking in recent weeks, she had eaten her daily raw egg and biscuits that day, he said.
A woman in Jamaica, Violet Brown, who was born on the Caribbean island on March 10 1900, is now considered the oldest known person in the world, according to a list kept by the Gerontology Research Group.
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